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At 99 years old, Dr. Norman M. Wall is still making a difference in the field of cardiology.

The Girardville native who became known for his work in Pottsville recently helped establish a multiyear fellowship for Israeli heart specialists. He will be honored for the effort tonight at the Congregation of Reform Judaism, Orlando, Fla.

"For an old guy, I've been getting a lot of honors but this one's topping it. It's very pleasing," Wall, now of Florida, said in a phone interview April 30.

Called the Norman M. Wall MD Fellowship in Cardiology, the program is being established at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Washington, D.C., by Dr. Ron Waksman, one of Wall's former students.

Waksman, 57, is associate director at the Division of Cardiology at MedStar Washington.

While still a medical student, he traveled from Israel to Pottsville in the early 1980s to study cardiology by working alongside Wall at the former Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center.

It's that experience that inspired him to name the fellowship after Wall.

"Dr. Wall devoted his lifetime to the education of medical students. He was engaged in a program in which at least 20 consecutive medical students from Israel were trained by him and his colleges in Pottsville. I was the second student. I don't think that program had a name. So I felt it would be appropriate to commemorate that initiative of his by naming this fellowship after him," Waksman said Tuesday.

"I've known him for more than 30 years," Wall said. "He's called me a surrogate father, and they decided to name this program after me. It's a pretty big honor before I go. It's a big send-off. I started off in Girardville and now I'm being sent off here in Florida," Wall said.

The fellowship will cost about $100,000 per year and is being funded by contributions from two nonprofit groups, the Cardiovascular Research Institute at Washington Hospital, Washington, D.C., and Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hahomer, Israel.

"I think it's a five-year program at this point," Waksman said.

The program will bring young cardiologists from the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer for a yearlong study at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and Georgetown University Medical Center.

Wall helped to establish Sheba Medical Center, which is Israel's largest hospital. He was honored for his efforts in December 2010 at Florida Hospital Orlando.

The fellowship students will be chosen by MedStar Washington for the program, Wall said.

"Every year, a new, young student will be selected to get one of the world's best educations in all kinds of cardiac imaging, from coronary artery to MRI," Wall said.

The first student to be enrolled in the fellowship will be selected in June, Waksman said.

Wall was born in Girardville, Feb. 9, 1914.

"I know Lost Creek, Lost Creek No. 2, William Penn. I walked those areas when I was a boy. I played baseball down there. There was a big coal bank in right field. You had to run up the coal bank to catch the ball," Wall said.

Wall served as a medical officer in the Army during World War II. He was dispatched, along with the 24th Field Station Hospital, to establish medical facilities in Tel Aviv, Palestine, which was then under British control.

"The U.S. Army established a hospital, first known as Tel Litwinsky, named after a hill looking over the city of Tel Aviv. The American military forces remained for about one year when they handed the hospital over to the British command," according to a 2010 issue of Heritage Florida Jewish News.

In 1948, when the State of Israel was established, Tel Litwinsky was turned over to the Jewish state. Dr. Haim Sheba worked to develop it into Israel's largest hospital and research center. "Today the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer is both a leading hospital and Israel's version of the National Institutes of Health," according to the article.

Wall became a commanding officer of the 367th Station Hospital Middle East Theatre, with the rank of lieutenant colonel, according to Republican-Herald archives.

Wall graduated from medical school at the University of Pennsylvania and came to work at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, Pottsville - which is now Schuylkill Medical Center-East Norwegian Street - in 1950. He eventually became the hospital's chief of staff, chief of medicine and cardiology and director of medical education.

"I'm a Jew but I ran that Catholic hospital when they rebuilt it, and it became the top place in the whole area. It was a much better medical center than any of them around there. Not a bad run," Wall said of his work.

In 1982, the Friends of Norman M. Wall, M.D. honored the doctor's accomplishments by raising $100,000 to build the Norman M. Wall Auditorium, which was dedicated at the hospital in June 1982.

Wall said he started working with Waksman "30-some years ago."

"He was just a young student. I've been very close to him ... I've always given him advice. He called me a pretty good teacher. He was so impressed with my teaching, that we became close. We corresponded and I became close with his family, too ... So recently he called my son and said he'd like to do something for the old man," Wall said.

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